Tell Congress to stop funding Israeli apartheid.

As documented by Human Rights Watch, Israel is committing apartheid -- a crime against humanity -- in its treatment of Palestinians. The U.S. government forces U.S. taxpayers to support Israeli apartheid by giving $3.8 billion to Israel’s military every year.

Details on Israeli Apartheid:

Palestinians have lived under Israeli military occupation and apartheid for decades. And the U.S. government has forced U.S. taxpayers to give Israel tens of billions of dollars in military funding along the way.

In its April 2021 report, Human Rights Watch stated that "Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution ... based on an overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians..."

As documented in the Human Rights Watch report, Israeli apartheid and persecution includes:

- "The suspension of basic civil rights to millions of Palestinians."
- "Confiscation of more than a third of the land in the [Occupied Palestinian] West Bank."
- "The forcible transfer of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes."

Apartheid itself is defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as “Inhumane acts ... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”

The U.S. has long been a major funder of Israeli apartheid, forcing taxpayers in the U.S. to give billions of dollars to Israel's military. Meanwhile, the Israeli government uses its military to confiscate Palestinian land and enable the building of Jewish-only settlements. Palestinians who dare to oppose these policies are often arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or even killed by Israeli soldiers and police.

What can be done? The Human Rights Watch report says, “The Israeli government should dismantle all forms of systematic domination and oppression that privilege Jewish Israelis and systematically repress Palestinians, and end the persecution of Palestinians.”

It is time for the U.S. to stop funding Israel's crimes against humanity. Our Members of Congress must immediately end all U.S. funding for the Israeli military.

Sources:

1. “Abusive Israeli Policies Constitute Crimes of Apartheid, Persecution,” Human Rights Watch, April 27, 2021. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/27/abusive-israeli-policies-constitute-crimes-apartheid-persecution.

2. “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” Report, Human Rights Watch, April 27, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution.

3. “Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Article 7 - 2(h); https://legal.un.org/icc/statute/romefra.htm.

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